Last year, a giant storm erupted in Saturn’s northern hemisphere. It grew in size and length as Saturn’s mighty winds whipped it around the planet. The Cassini spacecraft took this gorgeous picture of it in late February, when the storm was three months old:
Saturn doesn’t do anything small, does it? [Click to enchronosenate.]
You can see the storm has actually wound entirely around the planet; just below the head on the left you can see light colored clouds that are actually from the tail of the storm that’s wrapped all the way around Saturn. Given Saturn’s diameter of about 120,000 km (72,000 miles) and the latitude of the storm (call it 45°), this monster system must be well over 300,000 km (180,000 miles) in length! That’s three-quarters of the way from the Earth to the Moon.
Yegads.
The storm is blasting out tons of radio noise, a sure sign that lightning must be dancing prodigiously beneath those clouds. The violence and raw power of this storm are amazing to ponder. Note that just the north/south extent of the storm is roughly the size of Earth.
And hmmmm. I guess we don’t name storms on other planets as we do on our home world. But if we did, may I suggest… Ouroboros?
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
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July 6th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
I would go with Lister for the name.
July 6th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
That’s incredible. Fantastic image as well. What causes a storm like that? How long could it last?
July 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Wowsers! Early nominee for photo of the year?
And hey – is there “audio” of that radio feed?
July 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
You want to name it after the battery company from Red Dwarf?
Seriously, though, Saturn’s weather usually looks so subtle in visible light. This is… Wooooooow…
July 6th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
You think that’s a storm? Just wait till Richard Dawkins comments on it!
July 6th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like it’s spiraling slowly toward higher latitudes.
July 6th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Also, Saturn in general is just really freaking big. Wow, 3/4 of the way to the moon!
July 6th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
@WJM: Yes, there is audio: Lightning strikes at Saturn
July 6th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Wow! 300.000km! That’s about one lightsecond! Damn, that thing is big!
July 6th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
I love photos of big storms from our friendly neighborhood gas giants. The perturbations and swirls are mesmerizing, and (I’m assuming) because they’re so thick with gas the storms turn into giant demonstrations of fluid mechanics.
They’re awesome.
July 6th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
I wonder if those storms make anti-matter like ones on Earth.
See http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html
July 6th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Jesus…I am totally speechless…just imagine…what it would look like down there…
Great Zeusian thunderbolts with the power output of entire countries focused in individual blasts, leaping from state-sized cloud to state-sized cloud, blown into great, thousand kilometer wide swirls and eddies in the supersonic winds…with the great bow of the rings and the distant outer moons reflecting the light of a distant sun, surrounded by brilliant, quickly changing optical effects in a navy-blue sky…
Just…win. Totally, totally, totally awesome.
“The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
-JBS Haldane
July 6th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
@5: I couldn’t agree more. Will Rebeccagate EVER END???
July 6th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
Ah, Ouroboros, good name. Better than Susan,,,
,,,and I thought the recent storms here in Georgia were big,,,
So, what energy sources drive this monster?
Gary 7
July 6th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
A storm is gathering…
July 6th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
How is it known for sure that it’s a purely atmospheric phenomenon (a storm) and not caused by something on the “surface” (I use the term knowing that Saturn may not have a well-defined interface between atmosphere and solid-state matter planet)? It has the appearance of something fixed in place around which winds and clouds create turbulence. I’d love to see an analysis; is there a link that you can give us?
July 6th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
This storm reminds me of a Karman vortex street.
Georg
July 6th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
@ Gary, “So, what energy sources drive this monster?”
Turtles, all the way down!
July 6th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Wow! That looks like a rough storm. I sure hope the folks up there have plenty of insurance.
July 6th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
the snake devouring its own tail… thats a perfect name for it! well done sir!
July 6th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Shane C:
I had the same thoughts. The fact that the visible part of the storm has been drawn out and wrapped around the planet makes me think that it’s being generated by something below the cloud tops, and which is rotating at a slower rate, allowing wind to blow the top of the cloud away from the source. (Picture all those volcano images posted recently on this blog, with the plume blowing away from the volcano itself.)
For contrast, see Jupiter’s Red Spot.
July 6th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
thanks Phil, for being an unstoppable source of awesome desktop background
July 6th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
18. WJM
I just wonder what they’re fleeing,,,
Gary 7
July 6th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
[...] Bad Astronomer Phil Plait has the lowdown: Given Saturn’s diameter of about 120,000 km (72,000 miles) and the latitude of the storm (call it 45°), this monster system must be well over 300,000 km (180,000 miles) in length! That’s three-quarters of the way from the Earth to the Moon. [...]
July 6th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
You had me at “Last year…”
Thank you again.
July 6th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
How about SlinkyStorm? After all, it isn’t so much eating it’s tail as winding a spiral path around the planet.
July 6th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
The Vortex BlimpPeople are getting annoyed at that metal thing passing by outside their rings and taking photos….
July 6th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Saturn looks like it’s feeling jovial.
Seriously though, it does resemble some of Jupiter’s patterns.
So maybe if we figure out one, it can apply to the other?
I wonder if this is a seaonal phenomenon on Saturn.
July 6th, 2011 at 6:02 pm
@13 Sam H
“Will Rebeccagate EVER END”
Only if people stop making conversation about it.
Better to debate the SLS instead.
July 6th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
@16. Shane C: the analysis is in 3 articles of the latest issue of Nature.
July 6th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I nominate “Holy &^*{ that’s a big storm!” as the official name of pictured storm.
July 6th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
“Digital Atheist Says:
”
I nominate “Holy &^*{ that’s a big storm!” as the official name of pictured storm.
No, no : Holy Hal eakala!!!
Seriously.
July 6th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Well it does do some very small moons, moonlets and some positively tiny ring particles – but then it does a huge number of them!
Beautiful gorgeous Saturn image. Thanks BA.
In honour of the recent earthly controva-storm can I suggest we call this the Skepchick Sexism Saturnian Super Storm or SSSSS? Its even onomatopoeiaic ie. sounds like the storm may sound. Or maybe the shorter hurricane Rebecca?
@13. Sam H. : I prefer the Greg laden’s term : Rebeccapocalypse.
July 6th, 2011 at 9:31 pm
@33 Messier – nah, this controversy ain’t the end of the world – at least, not yet.
@29 Grand Lunar: What’s an SLS? I’m pretty sure it isn’t Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, being some stain remover in toothpastes.
July 6th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
I thought the Worm Ouroboros was on Venus.
July 6th, 2011 at 11:16 pm
[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/07/06/a-storm-wraps-around-saturn/ [...]
July 6th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
It’s made the mainstream news: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/07/3263260.htm
Now the article contains this quote: “Storms occur on average once every Saturnian year – nearly 29.5 Earth years – and appear to be linked to the summer solstice, when the planet’s orbit brings it a bit closer to the Sun and its atmosphere warms a little.”
Is Saturn’s perihelion linked to its solstice, or did they just mix up the terms?
July 7th, 2011 at 5:58 am
More about this here :
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-tempest-from-hell-saturn.html
Excerpt :
Seems this storm is a record breaker.
@34. Sam H. : Yeah but I just like the name!
Although I guess in some ways its a bit unfair to Rebecca Watson, it’s more Richard Dawkins storm or the Elevator Guys one than hers – but enough of that here. Just hope it blows over soon.
July 7th, 2011 at 6:14 am
Is that visible light?
July 7th, 2011 at 7:53 am
Wow, not just the storm, even the shadow of the rings look incredible strange! Didn’t ever thought about it…
July 7th, 2011 at 8:05 am
@ ^ Gonçalo Aguiar :
From the first link in the posted item above :
Which I guess means a yes.
July 7th, 2011 at 9:17 am
[...] la impresionante imagen que encabeza el artículo. Para disfrutar. Más información y visto en Bad Astronomy. [...]
July 7th, 2011 at 10:22 am
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July 7th, 2011 at 10:30 am
[...] A storm wraps around Saturn [badastronomy] [...]
July 7th, 2011 at 11:04 am
This does not look like a storm. It looks more like ejection from somewhere lower in the planet. If you look at the trail that has wrapped around the planet. It looks the same as if one were to put a constant drip of ink in water. If the water was flowing (in say a vortex) eventually, the ink would catch up to itself.
July 7th, 2011 at 11:30 am
[...] A storm wraps around Saturn [badastronomy] [...]
July 7th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
@34 Sam H
“@29 Grand Lunar: What’s an SLS? I’m pretty sure it isn’t Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, being some stain remover in toothpastes.”
The Space Launch System, the SDLV that Congress wants NASA to build.
Thought every space buff knew this one!
July 7th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I agree that the storm is reminiscent of a terrestrial volcanic plume being swept away by prevailing winds, and thus wonder just what the source of this one is. Not volcanism, to be sure! But does the Saturnian atmosphere have ‘hot spots’ beneath its ‘surface’? Or are Saturnian winds coupled with the planet’s rotation just so significant that they stretch/distort the storm so that it looks–to our perspective–like a plume, but the storm is in reality an actual free-’floating’ thing? (On that note, an earlier commenter pointed out that it appeared the storm is moving to higher latitudes. Is the storm gradually moving ‘upward’ to higher latitudes, or are the winds carrying its effects ‘downward’ to lower latitudes? Seeing some sort of time lapse of this storm would be very neat to see, if it were possible…)
July 8th, 2011 at 1:28 am
[...] Via ) Partagez :Tweet Sur le même sujet [...]
July 8th, 2011 at 8:51 am
So how long will it be before the whackosphere begins citing this Saturnian storm as proof that comet C/2010 X1 is actually a brown dwarf being towed by a Manthourian invasion force from Tau Ceti coming to take over our planet and force us to adopt socialized medicine?
July 8th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
The storm head is moving relative to the surface of Saturn, so while it may be that something deeper in Saturn helps instigate the storm, that it is a storm is pretty clear.
July 9th, 2011 at 1:14 am
global warming is now affecting Saturn.
July 10th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Supermassive Storm Raging On Saturn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fDwFyxQNds
July 11th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Aw, crap. I wanted the non-dairy creamer.
July 14th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
I believe Saturn translates as “Cronos”, not “Chronos” (which is Time). SG-1 had the same mistake on Cronus’s throne on his hatak.
July 14th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Stunning picture. But if you ask me, that looks more like an eruption from deep within Saturn (seems like a storm might be subject to those high winds, but the source looks stationary). You figure there has to be tons of heat and pressure bearing down on the inner layers. If just one abnormally low pressure system were to form, who is to say it wouldn’t all come gushing out like a volcanic eruption?